Beautiful Memphis

The rain-swollen Mississippi River reaches into Arkansas fields and provides a backdrop for the twilight Memphis skyline.

"You didn't forget the Frisbee, did you?" It's one of the many things we enjoy at Shelby Farms, the Most Perfect Park for Pets and the place where we have the Most Fun For Free.

Like a time machine, the Delta Queen steam boat paddles overnight guests back in time. The Delta Queen stern-wheeler is on what is likely its last trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers as a passenger- carrying steamboat and will unload its last overnight passengers in a grand tribute in Memphis on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. The next day, it loses its exemption to carry overnight passengers and will travel on down the river to New Orleans with just its crew. The American Queen, full of passengers, will accompany her south.

With a spring in his step Garrett Johnson, 7, leaps between rocks while running around Daffodil Hill at the Memphis Botanic Garden.

The ice and snow is falling in full force on South Main at Calhoun in Memphis Friday morning.

Samantha Mercer,14, of Millington volunteers her time working with the horses at Shelby Farms. Tuesday morning she checks on the horses who were grazing in the early morning fog.

A trolley passes east of the Pyramid. Debate continues to rage over the future of the landmark.

Nature puts on a light show over downtown Memphis as a string of tornadoes narrowly missed the metropolitan area.

As another thunderstorm rolls into Memphis a rainbow lights up the skyline.

The Wolf River was once a source of beauty and recreation as well as a thoroughfare for boat traffic. Preserving and enhancing the Wolf River Greenway is a complicated process. It involves coordinated efforts among two states, four counties, eight cities and towns, several federal and state agencies and conservation groups and hundreds of participating landowners all need to be partners in the process.

Sarabi nuzzles her newborn baby who is just a few hours old at the Memphis Zoo on Friday. The second new baby in two months was born to the zoo Friday morning around 7am. Until about three years ago, the zoo had gone 15 years without a successful birth. The babies are born while the mother is standing, they then drop to the ground; the gestation is about 14 mos.

Fussy geese at Patriot Lake prove that vanity is not just for humans as they bathe and fluff their feathers Sunday morning in the chilly water. The Shelby Farms Conservancy is about to unveil to the public the details of a master plan for the park which is expected to include playground improvements, more trails, and a restaurant.

View of downtown Memphis with the Hernando-DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Bees hop from flower to flower in the several fields of sun flowers have been planted at Shelby Farm. They ask people enjoy them from a far and do not pick them.

The Ghost section of the Wolf River gets its name because the river seems to disappear, easily disorienting its visitors. "It becomes a ghost of a river"; says Cathy Justis an educator for the Wolf River Conservancy. "It is easy to get lost," she said. Canoeists must be able to maneuver in and around and between the trees. "This whole area (Memphis) used to be covered in bottom land hardwood forest and swamp," Justis said.

Kayaks on the Mississippi River under the Hernando DeSoto I-40 bridge. The bridge connects Arkansas and Tennessee.

As the sun rises over Memphis it begins to set on an era for the Delta Queen while it docks on the river's edge at Greenbelt Park on Mud Island. The 1926 wooden paddle boat is losing its last 10-year exemption from U.S. Coast Guard regulations and will no longer be permitted to travel with overnight guests.

Beneath the Wolf River's surface lays an unseen world, an entire eco-system, including 25 different species of freshwater mussels. The river plays host to a wide variety of fish, birds and other creatures that are very dependent on it and its wetlands. The Wolf's vast watershed also plays a critical role in the replenishment of our famous drinking water. (Winter)

Bill McGee, longtime Riverside Park Marina resident, uses a boat to take supplies from the boat ramp to his house after a day of shopping at flea markets and going to the grocery store.

A deer walks through snow-covered foliage at the Wolf River Nature Area in Germantown.

Hernando gave its National Guard unit a sendoff parade Saturday as it returns to Iraq for the unit's second tour of duty in the middle east. William Jenkins waves a flag in support of the troops. About 150 members of Company A, 2/198th Combined Arms Battalion have been at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg for three weeks for pre-mobilization training for a May 1 deployment.They will leave Hernando May 1 for mobilization training at Camp Shelby and are expected to leave for the Middle East at the beginning of June for what is expected to be a year-long assignment.

Briley Whitehead, 2, of Baileyton, AL, plays peekaboo from behind her flag in Tom Lee Park while waiting for the big fireworks display to light up the sky.

A little rain couldn't keep Paige Vanderhoff, 12, from Brighton from enjoying the fireworks in the City Park for the annual celebration.

Weather forecasters made good on a 70% chance of rain prediction Monday as the Downtown area and many parts of Memphis got a good soaking. A pedestrian hustles over the trolly tracks on Main Street to get out of the rain that continued after a morning thunderstorm swept over the city. Tuesday the chance for rain dives down to the 30% mark according to the National Weather Service. But they're not ruling out the possibility an umbrella could still come in handy.

Morris Ray and other aviation enthusiast take in the senic panaramas nearly every weekend from their cockpits high above Mississippi River. Ray flies a North American T-6.

Lindsay Chandler and his dog Rosie, head out to pick flowers after a late afternoon thunderstorm. After moving back to his childhood home near Whitton, Arkansas, Chandler began growing flowers and selling them at area farmer's markets. He begins his day at 5:30 am takes a break in the hottest part of the day and then works until dark.

Well after dusk an estimated 50,000 people downtown waited for the first bursts in air that symbolize America's expansive freedoms. The fireworks exploded off a barge in the Mississippi river, shimmering in the sky and off the city's glassy office towers.